Art Berke, a lifelong White Sox fan, has worked at the highest levels of the sports industry with Major League Baseball, ABC Television and Sports Illustrated. He grew up in Northwest Indiana, in the shadow of old Comiskey Park, and proudly proclaims 2005 as the best year of his life. Art offers his glass half-full opinions and observations as he lives and dies with the Sox.

Another Game, Another Loss to the Twins

It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s the offense, pitching, defense, the ability to prevent stolen bases, if it’s at the Metrodome or Target Field or whether or not the Twins are shorthanded. Whatever the reason, the White Sox are putty in Minnesota’s hands.

Last night’s 4-1 loss brought out that same pattern in the South Siders as they attempt reach to reach .500 and move up in the A.L. Central standings (they are now three below and 4 1/2 games behind the Indians and Tigers).

The offense, with the exception of a Gordon Beckham double and a Brent Morel RBI single, was non-existent as Carl Pavano dominated with a six-hitter. And stalling rallies by grounding into four double plays, a season-long issue, certainly didn’t help.

Defensively, we didn’t commit any errors, but the age old problem of preventing stolen bases reared its ugly head–and three of them were swiped by Michael Cuddyer, not exactly the personification of Rickey Henderson. As much good as A.J. Pierzynski does behind the plate, pairing him with Gavin Floyd to stop the thievery is a recipe for disaster.

Perhaps the most distressing factor of all is that the Sox couldn’t take advantage of the fact that Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Denard Span, Jim Thome and Jason Kubel were all out of the Twinkie lineup.

The best part about baseball is that it’s a long season and there’s always that next game to change the course of things. It’ll be Mark Buehrle trying to do just that this afternoon as the Sox try to even the rain-shortened series before they head to face the D-backs in Arizona.

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

1 Comment

I can’t wrap my head around this whole Twins thing. It just doesn’t make any sense to me why we can’t beat this team with any consistency. They have triple A guys out there and their sub par pitching dominates us. The Twins are the epitome of my baseball frustrations.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.